Earlier this year, I ran the Great North Run half-marathon in an hour and 43 minutes, so my cardiovascular fitness isn’t terrible, either. However, standing at the bottom of a speed-climbing wall in the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena (EICA), Europe’s largest indoor climbing space, built into an old quarry in the Scottish capital’s countryside, my bravado is waning.

My challenge is to scale the 50ft speed climb as fast as I can

This is a far cry from the workouts I’m used to. The arena has played host to British Championships, World Cups… and now a Men’s Health junior fitness editor way out of his depth.

My challenge is to scale the 50ft speed climb as fast as I can. By pressing a big, red button at the bottom of the wall and then again at the top, my score can be recorded by a digital timer.

To help me hold my own on the wall, the EICA has put me in the capable and well-chalked hands of Robbie Phillips, one of Scotland’s top climbers. On his Instagram, Phillips describes his climbing style as “pure, unadulterated… no bullshit”. He’s just returned from spending a week suspended off an 800m rock face in Madagascar, where a friend fell from a 100m height and broke his leg (which doesn’t help to settle my nerves). Clearly, Phillips is the type of man who is drawn to danger. I avoid it at all costs, so the next few days should be interesting.

The earliest and only experience I have of climbing is watching the likes of Hunter and Wolf chase after challengers on Gladiators. The wall in front of me isn’t too dissimilar, minus a muscleman in spandex dragging me down. Phillips elects to give me zero pointers on my first climb to see how I cope. I hastily hit the buzzer at the bottom of the wall to start the clock. The climb is much harder than I thought it would be, and there’s no hiding how sluggishly I move – confirmed when I eventually push the button at the top, registering an embarrassing time of 36 seconds. Back at ground level, I’m told I’m more than seven times slower than the record of 4.9 seconds. By the end of my three-day crash course in climbing, Phillips has challenged me to halve my time.

Once I’ve got my breathing back under control, Phillips points out that I’m expending more energy than necessary by putting all the tension on my arms. I know this, of course, as my forearms and biceps are painfully pumped. Instead, I should be generating the power from my legs. “How many more air squats can you do in one go compared to pull-ups?” Phillips asks me. “A lot more,” I reply, making his point for him. He suggests I go again, but the damage to my forearms has already been done. That night, I can barely hold chopsticks to eat sushi (First World problems, I know). I won’t head back to the speed wall until the final day, as Phillips says the best way to improve my time is to build my technique on other walls.

Why You Should Use Your Lower-body to Climb

The next morning, Phillips takes me over to some of the bigger walls that tower around the EICA. “I know you’re used to moving in the sagittal plane (your basic flexing and extending) and at right angles in the gym, but use climbing as your chance to be more creative,” he suggests. I learn to turn my body in all directions to overcome obstacles, gliding – not jerking – up the wall, initiating my movements from my legs instead of relying on my upper body. With each ascent, it becomes ever clearer that climbing is neither about pull-up prowess nor cardiovascular fitness. Phillips sums it up as a combination of applying technique, problem-solving, moving intuitively and being functionally fit. “You can have all the strength in the world, but that doesn’t mean you can climb fast,” he says.

My next ascent proves that point. Phillips wants me to develop a technique known as “smearing”, which will come in handy for the speed test. It’s employed when there are no distinct holes to support your foot, so you’re forced to press the soles of your feet hard into the flat wall. I’m having to keep my body completely side-on and use the counter-pressure of my hands pulling and feet pushing (a technique known as “laybacking”) to ascend a crack.

Halfway up, I hit the wall – literally, swinging into the rock face (known as “barn-dooring”). I’m frozen, unable to figure out my next move. “A weighted foot never slips,” Phillips shouts up, reminding me to use the fail-safe smearing technique. I start to smear and move slowly. When I reach the top, I’m proud I didn’t give up. It turns out that grit is a significant part of the climbing equation, too.

How to Speed up Your Climbing

By my last day, I’m beginning to move intuitively without Phillips’s constant direction. To prepare before I take on the speed wall for the second and final time, I make three accelerated ascents on another wall of a similar height, with Phillips setting me the goal of moving faster each time. The key to speeding up, I’m told, is to work out a sequence, think three or four holds ahead, and embed it in my brain.

“You need to have a commitment mentality,” Phillips says. “You can’t go into a speed climb half-heartedly.” My competitive nature kicks in as I record times of 31, 26, then 24 seconds. The pain running through my arms and the calluses on my hands are tempered by my excitement to go faster. I feel as ready as I’ll ever be to take on the timed wall again.

Standing in front of it, I’m quietly confident. I’ve trusted the process and done everything Phillips has asked of me. My first climb is too cautious, but still: 19 seconds is a marked improvement on my previous 36. Unlike on day one, I’m able to find the mental strength to blunt the muscle burn that paralysed me after one attempt.

On the second run, I start to develop a flow, shaving off another two seconds. On the third, I’m moving much faster, using my legs and employing smearing – I feel like I’m barely holding the wall as I scramble to the top and hit the buzzer, stopping the timer at 12.04 seconds. It’s a far cry from 4.9, but I’ve exceeded my and Phillips’s initial goal. I’m thrilled with my time, but happier still that I’ve discovered a genuinely functional way to use my fitness, rather than for box jumps and burpees alone.

If you’re hesitant about signing up for a new challenge – whether it’s a marathon or mixed martial arts class – climbing has taught me that, with a bit of grit to see a process through, the sky is your limit.

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